The 16-year-old killing of a police officer moved a step closer to being solved with the arrest in Florida of a man with ties to Gaston County.

Jonesville Police Sgt. Gregory Keith Martin was killed while conducting a traffic stop on I-77 south around 2:42 a.m. on Oct. 5, 1996.

The suspect fled in the red Dodge Ram pickup truck that was stolen from a West Virginia car lot, abandoned the pickup at the Lucia textile plant in Elkin and stole a Lucia company van.

That van turned up at The Home Depot in Gastonia a day later, bringing the investigation to Gaston County.

“We worked with Jonesville (Police) over the years on investigating it,” said Gastonia Police Sgt. Jimmy Arndt.

Gastonia Police checked out leads and did interviews for the Jonesville Police, who suspected that whoever killed the officer either lived in Gaston County or had ties to the area.

Nine years after the killing, a new lead emerged when a witness came forward to describe a person driving the stolen van on I-77 South about 40 minutes after the killing.

Jonesville Police came to Gastonia in November 2005 to ask for the public’s help. Billboards with a sketch of that suspect went up in Gaston County in January 2006.

On Wednesday, Scott Vincent Sica, 36, was arrested and faces charges of first-degree murder in connection with Martin’s death, according to a Jonesville Police press release.

Sica was arrested in Cape Coral, Fla., around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday and is being held at a detention center in Lee County, Fla. He will be extradited to North Carolina.

The van is connected to the case, Arndt said. But he didn’t go into details.

Sica lived in the Belmont and Mount Holly area for a time, Arndt said.

“It’s not over with yet, but we’ve got the right people,” Arndt said.

He wouldn’t say how police knew they had the right man.

Jonesville Police Chief Roger Reece said in the news release that Jonesville Police, Elkin Police, N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI obtained information and physical evidence that led to Sica’s arrest. The SBI and FBI are processing additional evidence, he said.

“I know everyone is very eager to hear specifics on the evidence against Mr. Sica, but you must understand no additional details can be released in order to protect the integrity of this ongoing investigation,” Reece said in the prepared statement. “Sixteen years worth of work has gone into solving this case. Sgt. Martin’s murder has haunted this community, this police department and the members of the law enforcement agencies here with me today. We must do everything we can for the judicial process to proceed successfully, both for our investigation and for the rights of the accused in this case.”

Dozens of law enforcement agencies around the Southeast helped to investigate, Reece said.

Gastonia Police didn’t forget about the case, even though it became harder to investigate as the years passed.

“The thing is, you have to juggle that with the new stuff coming in,” Arndt said. “It’s a good feeling of relief to figure any homicide out. It’s taken a long time and a lot of hard work to get to this point.”

You can reach reporter Amanda Memrick at 704-869-1839 or follow @AmandaMemrick on Twitter.